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You Don't Own Web3

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Re: You Don't Own Web3

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the "wait and see" crowd just doesn't comment as much, because they have no strong assertions to make (yet).

I used to be a "wait and see" person until I actually took a hard and critical look at a lot of things in the crypto space. It seems evident now that most of it is just poor reinventions of existing financial services, and in some cases (NFTs) just abject scams.

> I used to be a "wait and see" person until I actually took a hard and critical look at a lot of things in the crypto space. It seems evident now that most of it is just poor reinventions of existing financial services, and in some cases (NFTs) just abject scams.

It's pretty obvious that "crypto" (e.g. blockchain stuff) is just clever technology in search of a problem to solve. Its touts keep inventing problems for it, but of out all of them, the only one that's actually stuck is "speculative investment to throw cash at."

I don't think they'll ever succeed, because the problems they identify are already solved by existing technologies and their solutions make worse tradeoffs.

Re: You Don't Own Web3

#52
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t Web3 meant to be decentralized sort of like peer to peer? Or it used to but maybe that’s not a thing anymore.

Depends on which “Web3” community you're talking to: ethereum, dApps, wallets etc. vs scuttlebutt, dat, urbit, etc.

I hesitate to ask, is urbit a thing? are daily active users of daily volume available anywhere?

Re: You Don't Own Web3

#53

Can someone explain what is meant by this?

It may be related, there is a video making the rounds of a crypto-CEO explaining Web3 to a congressional committee [0][5m56s], the major theme being that owning tokens is part ownership in the platform, the old Web is owned by tech giants, the new web is owned by anyone who holds a token. The whole thing reads to me as sleight of hand, too slick, but I couldn’t place my finger on what the lie/misrepresentation was. N…

Ao basically more tokens someone buys more he owns the platform lol, just like how internet was slowly bought by corporates. Do these crypto pedlers even realise what they say? Internet on day one was decentralised, and pretty much owned by none, no regulations.

The as people started joining Ads started then hackers joined, then came in scammers, then came in silicon valley unicorns who claim to make world a better place by showing more ads. Now web3 is just a dumb BS, they peddle to make money. If there is money to be made, govts and corporations wont let people have it.

Re: You Don't Own Web3

#54
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds exactly like > "wE aWe vEWy close to bweakthrough" as described by parent.

No, it's just some legal entity that is bound by law to hold those securities in a trust that is legally owned by the contract. This is how stable coins work, although tether holds assets not necessarily the underlying currency. But other stable coins hold 1:1 reserves based on the currency they're meant to track. Its centralized sure, the company could f up or commit fraud but there would likely be best standards an…

So basically its just the same old system with a new database?

Re: You Don't Own Web3

#55
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguing that Ethereum is a currency is just a straw man and you know it.

Have you just admitted that my comment has upset you, knowing that it is true so that you jumped hastefully into the comments section to type in some nonsense without fully reading the article? So AMC is not accepting Ethereum to pay for popcorn then? Well done for inventing and distorting claims to cover that you still haven't finished reading the article [0] [0] https://ambcrypto.com/is-it-really-ideal-to-buy-popco…

The article is about using Bitcoin for payments (and is not talking about Ethereum). I was talking about Ethereum. I am not upset, but rather amused. I don't care for alternative payments, I am not a crypto bro. I want to see what the tech can do.

Re: You Don't Own Web3

#56

I don't understand how you can't see blockchain/crypto as a growing tech where they might succeed, evolve and grow into the promises that contributors hope for. Why are most people taking a stance either in the crypto bro corner or in the "I can't buy popcorn with it, mah energy hurr durr" corner? The internet wasn't perfect from day one. How about seeing what sticks, what evolves, what problems are being worked on?…

I think the ideas and the technology are interesting, but it’s really difficult for me to extract that from the fact that the loudest faction of supporters out there just treat it as a get rich quick scheme.

Yeah I get that. But that's also a good indicator (if it comes from the project initiators) that you don't need to have an in-depth look at the project.

Re: You Don't Own Web3

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to be a "wait and see" person until I actually took a hard and critical look at a lot of things in the crypto space. It seems evident now that most of it is just poor reinventions of existing financial services, and in some cases (NFTs) just abject scams.

> I used to be a "wait and see" person until I actually took a hard and critical look at a lot of things in the crypto space. It seems evident now that most of it is just poor reinventions of existing financial services, and in some cases (NFTs) just abject scams. It's pretty obvious that "crypto" (e.g. blockchain stuff) is just clever technology in search of a problem to solve. Its touts keep inventing problems for…

I just expect a bubble burst like the dot com bubble. What stuck was the companies with a real business case, the rest was just mania. And what we learn from that will shape the crypto field going forward.

Re: You Don't Own Web3

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This tech never really took off and is a stillbirth.

I wish I could disagree with you. Of my four last jobs, two were semantic web/knowledge graph and two have been deep learning. I get more satisfaction from ML/deep learning work. That said, from a knowledge representation perspective, I love the idea of knowledge graphs, and sometimes they do have real efficacy.

I totally agree. My thesis advisor was doing semantic search research, I was the one doing ML. I never understood the need to organize information when you can just throw ML at it. But the research might be a stepping stone in AI further down the line, when you need to build exhaustive knowledge instead of "intuitive" knowledge based on pattern matching. So who knows what it's good for.

Re: You Don't Own Web3

#59

Can someone explain what is meant by this?

Most of the "web3 VC's" with NFT avis and .eth handles (see Chris Dixon) are obnoxiously tweeting about how "web2" sucks and that you don't have any ownership in it whereas "web3" is a decentralized utopia where you own every single piece of information about yourself and have the ultimate freedom to do anything.

I can't believe some of the tweets they post. Things like "web3 is the first time you can own a piece of the internet" (I'm paraphrasing) are so bluntly wrong I don't understand why people fall for this.

Re: You Don't Own Web3

#60
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's just some legal entity that is bound by law to hold those securities in a trust that is legally owned by the contract. This is how stable coins work, although tether holds assets not necessarily the underlying currency. But other stable coins hold 1:1 reserves based on the currency they're meant to track. Its centralized sure, the company could f up or commit fraud but there would likely be best standards an…

So basically its just the same old system with a new database?

Did you read my original comment?

> When someone figures out how to custody financial assets on the blockchain (e.g. stocks, bonds, etc), then you can create exchanges that aren't regulated and are open 24-7.

The databases are outside of the purview of the state, so they're able to get around restrictions. Why can't you gamble online, depending on the state you're in? Why can't I send money to people in Iran? Why can't I invest in a start up if I'm not accredited?

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